Year: 2007

11:14 a.m. Jan. 1 update: Just because I like things organized (unlike the Yorks), here’s the link to my column in this morning’s paper on the 49ers/Yorks/Nolan indecisive hoo-ha. I guess I’m headed back down there at some point today.

More guessing by me: The Yorks are taking this long because they sort of know they have to fire Nolan, but gee, John York does love to get his hand kissed. And Nolan got his job, remember, strictly by kissing John, Jed, Paraag Marathe and Terry Tumey’s hands. Repeatedly. Over long hours. Through the St. Louis night. Over and over and over and over. He’ll do it again.

But I still think he’ll be fired. Eventually. Think of it this way: Nolan is ALREADY a lame duck coach. It’s already bad that he’ll be a two-day lame duck. What if he’s a lame duck for a whole off-season? Terrible. The Yorks know that, don’t they? Or somebody can tell them, not named Nolan or part of his family or part of his cult. We’ll see. As always: Watch Jed York and Marathe on this one.

John and Jed York drove out of the 49ers facility at about 7 p.m., with John driving, and John stopped for about 45 seconds.

“We met for some time today,” John York said. “We’re going to meet again in the morning.”

Any timetable for a decision?

“It depends when the meetings are over,” John York said, looking wary but acting politely.

“There’s no point in talking about this until we’re finished.”

Maybe two minutes later, Mike Nolan drove out with his wife, and also stopped briefly.

“I’ve only got one thing to say,” Nolan said, “Happy New Year, guys. I’ll be back in the morning.”

Nolan gave a smile and a thumbs up, then drove off.

My interpretation: Nolan wants to give off the aura of a guy who still is in some control of his destiny. Doubt that he feels that confident, but he has to give off that vibe.

The Yorks have a decision to make. I didn’t get a good look at Jed, but he didn’t look entirely comfortable sitting in there, next to his dad, as the lights went on.

Here’s what will decide it: John and Jed’s conversation tonight, possibly with a call to Youngstown to see what Denise DeBartolo York thinks about the whole thing.

My guess is that the ball is in Jed’s court. Can he figure out how this works without Nolan?

5:39 p.m. update:The assistant coaches are leaving one by one. They’ve just been told to go ahead and go home and come back tomorrow. They say they don’t know anything. I don’t know if there’s anything to know. No sign of Nolan or the two JYs–though their cars are still in the parking lot.

4:20 p.m. update:Yes, Jed York is in the meeting with John York and Mike Nolan. Of course. But I did have to double-check that one, just to make sure.

-I asked if Paraag Marathe is in the meeting and received no confirmation or rejection of that thought. So: No idea. I’d bet he’s popping in and out, but that’s just a guess.

3:56 p.m. update: My guess is that whatever’s decided today, if anything is decided, will be released via Nolan to his great buddy Jay Glazer of Fox Sports. Probably tonight. Always putting Nolan in the greatest halo possible.

Flash alert: There will be no Mike Nolan press conference today. There is no word on his status, yay or nay.

Apparently, he has been meeting with John and, I’m assuming, Jed York this afternoon. The meeting is still going on.

Obviously, Nolan is pleading his case to remain coach. Obviously, the Yorks don’t know what the heck they’re going to do.

Obviously, this is probably not good news for Nolan’s prolonged employment.

Very, very obviously, this is horrible news for any 49ers fans: The Yorks are bungling things again.

My personal view: Forgot to mention that I’d fire Nolan. No question. I just can’t see an entire off-season devoted to churning over all this tired Nolan-ite stuff when the 49ers need a new start–and a stadium miracle. NOLAN HAS HAD THREE YEARS and he delivered zero good games this season. Zero. Do you want him picking the next off-coor or QB? And what power off-coor will want to come here in Nolan’s lame-duck season? End of discussion. I’ll write a column on this for tomorrow. This is just an update.

Mike Nolan talks at 2 p.m. 12:15 p.m. on the day after a game. That’s the schedule. That’s the way he always does it.

He’s a regimented football guy, as you all know by now, and he truly loves his set schedules. Loves, loves, loves his routines. All football coaches love routines, and your (as of right now) 49ers head coach loves them more than most.

But today’s much-anticipated (well, as much as you can anticipate a Nolan press conference) Nolan appearance won’t be at 12:15 or even 2.

This morning the 49ers announced that Nolan’s press conference has been pushed back to 4 p.m., due to “meetings.”

How interesting. Maybe it means nothing more than Nolan is busy today.

But in Yorkville, where little things must be analyzed and scrutinized because the two JYs never speak about the Big Things until long after they’ve moved along on the Big Things… what we have to analyze are the little things.

This is a big little thing. Plus, Nolan’s player-meetings are over by noon or so, I believe. This can’t be about player-meetings. Maybe Nolan will fire Jim Hostler at 2. Maybe not. I think this about the two JYs, since weird things almost always involve the two JYs.

This is what I’d guess the two-hour delay means:

* Nolan will almost certainly be meeting with the two JYs in the early afternoon. Let’s give it a guess: 1 p.m. meeting.

* Nolan will be given that chance to present his argument to stay. I have no idea why the two JYs need another meeting to hear from Nolan, since, you know, he has actually been their employee for three full seasons and they should have a decent idea by now, you’d imagine.

(Nolan will praise them. Nolan will defend himself. He will say he’s firing Hostler. He will rip Alex Smith, then say he has every reason to believe he can live without Smith–or with him, depending on what the two JYs want, if Nolan can figure that out before opening his mouth. He’s quite good at that. It’s how he got this job in the first place.

(Nolan will point to his defense and how “wonderful” the team played in late-December. He’ll say, hey, let me work with Scot McCloughan, if he’s GM, if he’s not GM, it’ll be great. He’ll praise Marathe because Nolan knows where this is headed. He might blame Lal Heneghan a little bit. Then he’ll make a fervent pitch: One more year! It’ll turn for sure!

(JYs, I can just do this for you now and save us all some time!)

But hey, they’re the JYs, they do nutty things. They love meetings. They want the meeting.

I used to be good at this, and now I am awful. Cannot explain it, other than I have turned into an awful, awful bowl predictor. Awful.

Must embrace the reality because it is not deniable.

It’s hard to go 0 for 6 to start the bowl season. Not for me, not in the 2007/08 bowl season. Lose with Utah, lose with Memphis, lose with Cincy (by .5 point), lose with Nevada (by a thousand points), lose with BYU, lose with Boise. Wow.

If you add that to my collapse at the end of 2006/07… this is screwing up my favorite thing in sports–Royce Feour’s terrific Las Vegas-based bowls pool.

Once again, I’m out of it before I ever was really in it. This time, I’m out of it before anybody who’s any good has even played.

Sadness. Wilmer is 2-4 right now according to my stats, so my only goal is see how close I can get to him.

Probably won’t be updating the Big Contest since I can barely stand to see the games these days, unless I do actually go 0-32, and that’d be historic.

Shaun Hill isn’t just a journeyman quarterback any more. He’s a concept. He’s an ideal. He’s an irresistible force, powering through the 49ers’ locker room, hearts and minds.

He’s the anti-Alex Smith. That’s what he is. He has come from nowhere, worked his way through anonymity, stuck in there through tough physical moments, supported his coach, and he has won games.

He’s the anti-Alex, and that’s a powerful thing these days in 49erland.

And therefore, Hill is Mike Nolan’s potential 11th-hour savior.

Pretty heady stuff for a guy who hadn’t thrown a pass in the NFL until three weeks ago, huh?

Such is the whirling way of things in the NFL, and especially for down-trodden teams searching for hope and meaning.

Hill, the twang-talking kid from the plains, by way of the University of Maryland, NFL Europa, the Minnesota Vikings and the wild blue yonder, won another game for the 49ers on Sunday, this time by a 21-19 score over Tampa Bay at Monsterstick Park.

He wasn’t great, as Hill acknowledged. He wasn’t the spiritual leader—that was Bryant Young in the final home game of his grand 14-season career.

Hill is just the guy who happened to be playing quarterback when the 49ers started looking decent on offense, and Hill threw three more touchdown passes along the way.

Which means something. It doesn’t mean that Hill should be the 49ers starting QB in 2008 or that he has a great future in this league.

But every time Hill hits a receiver in stride, or gets back up from a huge hit, or darts away from a defender… Alex Smith loses that much more credibility in the locker room.

Procedural note: The NFL is playing and practicing through the Christmas-New Year’s week, but, inspired by the Falcons and Bengals, we are shutting it down early.

There will be no picks next week–the final stanza of the regular season. No 49ers vs. Cleveland, no Raiders vs. San Diego! Horrors!

Yes, breaks your heart. I understand that. You’ll have to double up your Merc Picks addiction with this week’s assortment. Just the way it is.

After next week, we’ll be back up and running for the playoffs, all the way through Cleveland’s 44-10 victory in Super Bowl XLII.

1. KAWAKAMI (last week 1-2, overall 25-18-2)/

* RAIDERS +13, over Jacksonville. My comment: Jax isn’t the most consistent team in the world and might hit a tiny lull after the soaring win in snowy Pittsburgh. 10 a.m. West Coast kick-off, I know, I’m crazy. But going with the Kiffins to keep it close.